The present invention is directed to sheets of wrapping material that can be arranged on a roll around a central core, and used in an agricultural baler to securely wrap a harvested cylindrical bale. In the process of wrapping during the harvesting, the wrapping material must be securely bound to the bale to ensure protection against the elements in the field. Secondly, conventionally there has been a mechanism within the wrapping material to separate the active wrapping segment for the bale from the available wrapping material on a roll being used with an agricultural baler. Prior wrapping materials have included rolls of individual wrapping segments successively joined via elaborate Z-folds or laminates including multiple interacting adhesive layers to form an otherwise ‘continuous roll’ of segments, wherein the trailing end of each segment has an adhesive surface to seal the end of the wrap on the bale to the wrapping surface immediately beneath it. The intricacies of prior wrapping materials were meant to isolate the adhesive until the end of the process to prevent the adhesive from wrongly sticking to winding machinery in the winding cycle or to dispending rollers and other wrapping machinery during the wrapping cycle, and the efficiencies were aimed (with mixed results) at providing all of this functionality on a continuous roll of material with separable wrapping segments releasably joined together.
But in spite of prior attempts, there is still a need for a practical and feasible reusable wrap covering for the harvested bales. Moreover, there is a significant desire for this capability, given the cost and waste associated with discarding the wrapping materials after a single use. Even though the plastic is relatively inexpensive, being limited to just one use cycle per segment adds significantly to the overall cost of producing harvested agricultural products such as cotton and hay. Accordingly, there is a well-defined need that would result in significant savings for a reusable wrapping material.
Against this basic backdrop, the current embodiments may be better understood with the following descriptions and explanations, particularly as the inventive wrap and method of utilization thereof accords significant benefits and savings in comparison to prior approaches. In this context, a wrapping material is provided herein for such as cylindrical bales of field crops (e.g., cotton and hay), wherein wrapping segments are identified by adhering members that comprise hook and loop fasteners for attaching one end of the wrapping segment to another end, thus securely encircling a cylindrical bale.